The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen

The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen is another item published at the time around Russian Presidential Election of 2012. If you got to read The Strongman: Vladimir Putin and the Struggle for Russia by Angus Roxburgh, then The Man Without a Face will complement it nicely as if the authors agreed to take on different angles of Putin's character.

Gessen's book starts as a bio, looking into Vova's troublesome teen years, unwinding into a piece of investigative journalism. From enrolling into KGB, moving to public service, and then to the Presidency, Masha Gessen is finding Putin's career contaminated with disappearing cargo trains, suspicious Swiss bank accounts, poisonings of journalists and politicians, and a number of other twisted things. Symptomatically, the book has not yet been published in Russia, but Masha Gessen has already lost her job.

Few reviews translated into Russian and published online although caused angry responses, don't change much in public awareness about the book among Russians. Few words about the audio version of the book. The Man Without a Face has been read by Justine Eyre, so far little known Canadian-born actress. Justine Eyre finds time between working in Hollywood, studying at the University and writing a book to share her voice with us, prompting the audio-book to stand out by itself. Even her struggling with Russian names and toponyms adds to the book as if demonstrating how distant the Western readers are from Russian reality. If you have problem with that, try to read out loud "Schekotschikhin", the name of Russian journalist and politician, Member of Russian Duma, who mysteriously died while investigating 1999 Apartment Bombing and high profile money laundering activities.

Buy The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin from Amazon.